Martialis, Marcus Valerius. M. Val. Martialis Epigrammaton libri XII. Xeniorum Liber I. Apophoretorum Liber I. Omnia ad vetustiorum codicum fidem diligenter emendata, scholiis in margine illustrata, apposita etiam varietate lectionum, ac demum decem epigrammatis X eodem vetusto codice suis locis adiectis, aucti, opera Hadriani Iunii Medici. Antwerp: Christophe Plantin, 1568
The epigrams of Martialis, edited by Hadrianus Junius (Adriaen de Jonghe; 1511–1575) with the aid of a manuscript (now lost) he had found in England. Junius had given the edition to the Basel printer Peter Perna, who had published it in 1559—badly in the editor’s opinion. This new edition was thoroughly revised by Junius and enlarged with notes by Theodor Poelman (Pulmannus) based on another manuscript. Two couplets from the Florilegium Gallicum and some apocryphal epigrams are included (Book VII: 99-101; Book XII: 99, 101, 103). It was reprinted by Plantin in 1579 and became the basis of some other editions, but in these the scholia are not printed.
The binding of this copy is lettered “Patriae et Amicis” (upper cover) and 1568 (in Roman numerals, lower cover), with the author’s name on the back. Three bindings with this motto were cited by G. D. Hobson in 1926; six were identified by Mirjam Foot in 1974, and Anthony Hobson in 2006 expanded her list to eight. At present, thirty-seven bindings are known. Apart from eight works of contemporary history, seven by Paolo Giovio and one by Paolo Emilio, in Latin editions published respectively in 1560–1561 at Basel and in 1555 at Paris, and a Latin edition of Angelo Poliziano’s letters, published in 1546 at Lyon, the books are editions of the Latin classics, printed 1546–1568, predominantly by Sébastien Gryphe at Lyon (nineteen), the remainder from Christophe Plantin at Antwerp (five), and Jérôme de Marnef (two) and Benoît Prévost at Paris (one). Fourteen are octavos and the rest duodecimos or sextodecimos.
None of the volumes contains evidence which might help to identify their original owner. The German custom of recording the date of acquisition on a binding suggested to Anthony Hobson that the owner was a German student on a peregrinatio academica in France. The motto “Patriae et Amicis” is associated with the noble Pfinzing family of Nuremberg, and Hobson identified Martin Seifried Pfinzing von Henfenfeld as the member of the family most likely to have been studying in France in 1568. Nothing is known of his education; however, in 1568 he made an entry in an album amicorum kept by a student at Tübingen university, Johann Ulrich Starck (matriculated 21 May 1568). In 1569, Martin Seifried married Catharina Starck von Reckenhof, and became an Assessor in Nuremberg, where he died in 1579, aged 32.
If these thirty-seven bindings bearing the motto “Patriae et Amicis” and date “1568” are indeed associated with the Pfinzing family, then Paul Pfinzing (1523–1570) most probably was their owner. In 1555, Paul had devised with the Nuremberg printmaker Virgil Solis a woodcut exlibris portraying the newly-dignified family insignia with a new motto, “Patriae et Amicis,” lettered around a scene of Marcus Curtius in front of the abyss. The same motto and scene of Marcus Curtius appear on two portrait medals, cast in 1555–1556, recording Paul’s appointment as an imperial councilor and personal secretary to Charles V and to Philip II of Spain. Near the end of his life, Paul commissioned from the printmaker Matthias Zündt of Nuremberg three etched versions of Solis’ woodcut exlibris, each with the “Patriae et Amicis” motto, two of them dated 1569. Paul’s brother, Martin II (1521–1572), also commissioned exlibris: one from Zündt, around 1565, displaying his and his wife’s insignia side-by-side (without a motto); the other from Jost Amman, around 1568, showing the Henfenfeld arms alone (motto: Deus Videt). Martin II adapted impressions of Paul’s Zündt exlibris for his own use, personalizing them by adding his name on the blank tablets; later members of the family did likewise. It is notable, however, that neither of Martin II’s two portrait medals, nor medals made for other family members, use the motto “Patriae et Amicis.” This, presumably, was the personal motto of Paul, not a family motto.
Paul died, unmarried, at Madrid on 30 August 1570. Although the disposition of his library is uncertain, it most likely remained in Spain, and it may be no coincidence that a large number of the “Patriae et Amicis” bindings were in Spanish ownership in the late seventeenth or early eighteenth century. Eleven, possibly thirteen, volumes, have the distinctive shelf-marks of the library formed by Gaspar Téllez-Girón, 5th Duke de Osuna (1625–1694). Another eleven, possibly fourteen, volumes, contain the ownership inscription of the Jesuit Pierre Robinet (1656–1738). Sometime professor at Pont-à-Mousson and Strasbourg, rector of the Jesuit Colleges at Strasbourg and Reims, Robinet was appointed Confessor to Philip V in 1705, and in 1712 he became director of the royal library in Madrid. Robinet assisted in the consolidation of the King’s personal collection, and gathered books confiscated from the libraries of Antonio Folch de Cardona, Archbishop of Valencia, and other rebels. In 1715, Robinet returned to Strasbourg, becoming again rector of the Jesuit College, to which he bequeathed his library. Many “Patriae et Amicis” volumes remain in Strasbourg; see Schlaefli, Catalogue des livres du seizième siècle (1531–1599) de la bibliothèque du Grand Séminaire de Strasbourg, nos. 644, 646, 649, 652, 654, 941, 978, 1721, 1858-1860, 2683.
This volume is decorated by cornucopia corner-blocks, seemingly identical to those found on a Plantin imprint of 1566 (Meunier, Cent reliures de la Bibliothèque nationale [Paris, 1914], Pl. 71) and on a book bound in Paris about 1580 (Montaigne, Essais, Bordeaux, 1580; Meunier, Pl. 70). The cartouche was observed by Hobson on three “Patriae et Amicis” volumes, all Plantin imprints, published 1566–1568. Hobson noted that it resembles, but is not identical, to a cartouche used in Paris in 1566 on a binding for a Swiss student, Ludwig zur Gilgen.
This volume is decorated by cornucopia corner-blocks, seemingly identical to those found on a Plantin imprint of 1566 (Meunier, Cent reliures de la Bibliothèque nationale [Paris, 1914], Pl. 71) and on a book bound in Paris about 1580 (Montaigne, Essais, Bordeaux, 1580; Meunier, Pl. 70). The cartouche was observed by Hobson on three “Patriae et Amicis” volumes, all Plantin imprints, published 1566–1568. Hobson noted that it resembles, but is not identical, to a cartouche used in Paris in 1566 on a binding for a Swiss student, Ludwig zur Gilgen.
12mo (125 x 80 mm). Italic and roman types, 31 lines plus headlines, shoulder notes. collation: A–Z8 a8: 192 leaves (a7, a8 blank). Small woodcut Plantin device on title-page, woodcut initials. Ruled in red. (Some light browning.)
binding: Parisian (Antwerp?) red morocco (129 x 84 mm), dated 1568, richly gilt, large corner-pieces, semé of clover, architectonic cartouche containing motto “PATRIAE ET AMICIS” on upper cover and date “.M.D./LXVIII” on lower cover, flat spine richly gold tooled with 2-line horizontal title in rectangular frame near head, gilt edges. (Joints and corners restored.) Brown morocco folding-case, by Gruel.
provenance: Paul Pfinzing von Henfenfeld (1523–1570; supralibros) — Léon Gruel (1841–1923) — Maurice Burrus (1882–1959; his acquisition label dated 1937) — Étienne et Antoine Ader, Jean-Louis Picard, Jacques Tajan & Claude Guérin, Paris, Reliures et livres anciens, 15 November 1971, lot 94, purchased by — unidentified owner (FF 3500). acquisition: Purchased from Rossignol, Paris, 1992.
references: Voet, Plantin Press, no. 1637; USTC 404564; for the binding, see F.-E. Valois, “Le Bibliophile a l’Exposition,” in Revue biblio-iconographique 7 (1900), pp. 261–275 (p. 270); Foot, “Some Bindings for Foreign Students in 16th-Century Paris,” in The Book Collector (1975), pp. 106–110 (p. 106, no. 4); A. Hobson, “Three Plaquette Bindings and a German Collector,” in Bibliophilies et reliures: Mélanges offerts à Michel Wittock (Brussels, 2006), pp. 265–269 (p. 268, no. 7).
Martialis, Marcus Valerius. M. Val. Martialis Epigrammaton libri XII. Xeniorum Liber I. Apophoretorum Liber I. Omnia ad vetustiorum codicum fidem diligenter emendata, scholiis in margine illustrata, apposita etiam varietate lectionum, ac demum decem epigrammatis X eodem vetusto codice suis locis adiectis, aucti, opera Hadriani Iunii Medici. Antwerp: Christophe Plantin, 1568
The epigrams of Martialis, edited by Hadrianus Junius (Adriaen de Jonghe; 1511–1575) with the aid of a manuscript (now lost) he had found in England. Junius had given the edition to the Basel printer Peter Perna, who had published it in 1559—badly in the editor’s opinion. This new edition was thoroughly revised by Junius and enlarged with notes by Theodor Poelman (Pulmannus) based on another manuscript. Two couplets from the Florilegium Gallicum and some apocryphal epigrams are included (Book VII: 99-101; Book XII: 99, 101, 103). It was reprinted by Plantin in 1579 and became the basis of some other editions, but in these the scholia are not printed.
The binding of this copy is lettered “Patriae et Amicis” (upper cover) and 1568 (in Roman numerals, lower cover), with the author’s name on the back. Three bindings with this motto were cited by G. D. Hobson in 1926; six were identified by Mirjam Foot in 1974, and Anthony Hobson in 2006 expanded her list to eight. At present, thirty-seven bindings are known. Apart from eight works of contemporary history, seven by Paolo Giovio and one by Paolo Emilio, in Latin editions published respectively in 1560–1561 at Basel and in 1555 at Paris, and a Latin edition of Angelo Poliziano’s letters, published in 1546 at Lyon, the books are editions of the Latin classics, printed 1546–1568, predominantly by Sébastien Gryphe at Lyon (nineteen), the remainder from Christophe Plantin at Antwerp (five), and Jérôme de Marnef (two) and Benoît Prévost at Paris (one). Fourteen are octavos and the rest duodecimos or sextodecimos.
None of the volumes contains evidence which might help to identify their original owner. The German custom of recording the date of acquisition on a binding suggested to Anthony Hobson that the owner was a German student on a peregrinatio academica in France. The motto “Patriae et Amicis” is associated with the noble Pfinzing family of Nuremberg, and Hobson identified Martin Seifried Pfinzing von Henfenfeld as the member of the family most likely to have been studying in France in 1568. Nothing is known of his education; however, in 1568 he made an entry in an album amicorum kept by a student at Tübingen university, Johann Ulrich Starck (matriculated 21 May 1568). In 1569, Martin Seifried married Catharina Starck von Reckenhof, and became an Assessor in Nuremberg, where he died in 1579, aged 32.
If these thirty-seven bindings bearing the motto “Patriae et Amicis” and date “1568” are indeed associated with the Pfinzing family, then Paul Pfinzing (1523–1570) most probably was their owner. In 1555, Paul had devised with the Nuremberg printmaker Virgil Solis a woodcut exlibris portraying the newly-dignified family insignia with a new motto, “Patriae et Amicis,” lettered around a scene of Marcus Curtius in front of the abyss. The same motto and scene of Marcus Curtius appear on two portrait medals, cast in 1555–1556, recording Paul’s appointment as an imperial councilor and personal secretary to Charles V and to Philip II of Spain. Near the end of his life, Paul commissioned from the printmaker Matthias Zündt of Nuremberg three etched versions of Solis’ woodcut exlibris, each with the “Patriae et Amicis” motto, two of them dated 1569. Paul’s brother, Martin II (1521–1572), also commissioned exlibris: one from Zündt, around 1565, displaying his and his wife’s insignia side-by-side (without a motto); the other from Jost Amman, around 1568, showing the Henfenfeld arms alone (motto: Deus Videt). Martin II adapted impressions of Paul’s Zündt exlibris for his own use, personalizing them by adding his name on the blank tablets; later members of the family did likewise. It is notable, however, that neither of Martin II’s two portrait medals, nor medals made for other family members, use the motto “Patriae et Amicis.” This, presumably, was the personal motto of Paul, not a family motto.
Paul died, unmarried, at Madrid on 30 August 1570. Although the disposition of his library is uncertain, it most likely remained in Spain, and it may be no coincidence that a large number of the “Patriae et Amicis” bindings were in Spanish ownership in the late seventeenth or early eighteenth century. Eleven, possibly thirteen, volumes, have the distinctive shelf-marks of the library formed by Gaspar Téllez-Girón, 5th Duke de Osuna (1625–1694). Another eleven, possibly fourteen, volumes, contain the ownership inscription of the Jesuit Pierre Robinet (1656–1738). Sometime professor at Pont-à-Mousson and Strasbourg, rector of the Jesuit Colleges at Strasbourg and Reims, Robinet was appointed Confessor to Philip V in 1705, and in 1712 he became director of the royal library in Madrid. Robinet assisted in the consolidation of the King’s personal collection, and gathered books confiscated from the libraries of Antonio Folch de Cardona, Archbishop of Valencia, and other rebels. In 1715, Robinet returned to Strasbourg, becoming again rector of the Jesuit College, to which he bequeathed his library. Many “Patriae et Amicis” volumes remain in Strasbourg; see Schlaefli, Catalogue des livres du seizième siècle (1531–1599) de la bibliothèque du Grand Séminaire de Strasbourg, nos. 644, 646, 649, 652, 654, 941, 978, 1721, 1858-1860, 2683.
This volume is decorated by cornucopia corner-blocks, seemingly identical to those found on a Plantin imprint of 1566 (Meunier, Cent reliures de la Bibliothèque nationale [Paris, 1914], Pl. 71) and on a book bound in Paris about 1580 (Montaigne, Essais, Bordeaux, 1580; Meunier, Pl. 70). The cartouche was observed by Hobson on three “Patriae et Amicis” volumes, all Plantin imprints, published 1566–1568. Hobson noted that it resembles, but is not identical, to a cartouche used in Paris in 1566 on a binding for a Swiss student, Ludwig zur Gilgen.
This volume is decorated by cornucopia corner-blocks, seemingly identical to those found on a Plantin imprint of 1566 (Meunier, Cent reliures de la Bibliothèque nationale [Paris, 1914], Pl. 71) and on a book bound in Paris about 1580 (Montaigne, Essais, Bordeaux, 1580; Meunier, Pl. 70). The cartouche was observed by Hobson on three “Patriae et Amicis” volumes, all Plantin imprints, published 1566–1568. Hobson noted that it resembles, but is not identical, to a cartouche used in Paris in 1566 on a binding for a Swiss student, Ludwig zur Gilgen.
12mo (125 x 80 mm). Italic and roman types, 31 lines plus headlines, shoulder notes. collation: A–Z8 a8: 192 leaves (a7, a8 blank). Small woodcut Plantin device on title-page, woodcut initials. Ruled in red. (Some light browning.)
binding: Parisian (Antwerp?) red morocco (129 x 84 mm), dated 1568, richly gilt, large corner-pieces, semé of clover, architectonic cartouche containing motto “PATRIAE ET AMICIS” on upper cover and date “.M.D./LXVIII” on lower cover, flat spine richly gold tooled with 2-line horizontal title in rectangular frame near head, gilt edges. (Joints and corners restored.) Brown morocco folding-case, by Gruel.
provenance: Paul Pfinzing von Henfenfeld (1523–1570; supralibros) — Léon Gruel (1841–1923) — Maurice Burrus (1882–1959; his acquisition label dated 1937) — Étienne et Antoine Ader, Jean-Louis Picard, Jacques Tajan & Claude Guérin, Paris, Reliures et livres anciens, 15 November 1971, lot 94, purchased by — unidentified owner (FF 3500). acquisition: Purchased from Rossignol, Paris, 1992.
references: Voet, Plantin Press, no. 1637; USTC 404564; for the binding, see F.-E. Valois, “Le Bibliophile a l’Exposition,” in Revue biblio-iconographique 7 (1900), pp. 261–275 (p. 270); Foot, “Some Bindings for Foreign Students in 16th-Century Paris,” in The Book Collector (1975), pp. 106–110 (p. 106, no. 4); A. Hobson, “Three Plaquette Bindings and a German Collector,” in Bibliophilies et reliures: Mélanges offerts à Michel Wittock (Brussels, 2006), pp. 265–269 (p. 268, no. 7).
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